India must go global

India is poised on the brink of deliverance. And disaster. This will be the decisive decade for India. How and when it acts will make or mar the idea of India. Today, the billion-plus nation is faced with the circumstance of conflicting objectives and competing compulsions. India's imperative for

India is poised on the brink of deliverance. And disaster. This will be the decisive decade for India. How and when it acts will make or mar the idea of India. Today, the billion-plus nation is faced with the circumstance of conflicting objectives and competing compulsions. India's imperative for growth is triggered by widespread poverty. Growth necessitates appropriation of private land, natural resources and public funds to create enabling conditions and infrastructure. The outcome is not necessarily equitable. Even if India does balance the variables at home, on the global stage it faces challenges as the developed world gangs up on trade tariffs and emission cuts.

Given the magnitude of the challenge, India is running out of time. It is time India thought not just out of the box but out of the boundaries. Embedded in the challenges are opportunities. Empires or superpowers are not created by inward looking regimes. Sovereign India needs to go global. It could acquire land in Sudan or Brazil to grow food to beat shortages, buy into natural and energy resources in Russia or Africa to fuel growth and enable Indian entrepreneurs to buy out production capacities for the Indian market. The instrument of acquisition could be an India Fund created with a combo of forex reserves, Indian savings and FIIs. Or it could be an Indian entrepreneur buying an agro conglomerate or a green tech start-up.

Yes, the theme of commercial colonisation needs a policy putsch. Budget 2010 must declare these enclaves as tax-free SEZs and food, gas or goods produced in these enclaves must be duty-free imports. We allow duty-free import of edible oil or oil seeds, of sugar or unrefined gur. Why not allow a Mahindra or an Adani to acquire farms and produce pulses or paddy and allow duty-free export to India? Instead of subsidising global fertiliser firms, why not set up our own in, say, Qatar? Power plants can be set up in Bangladesh or Myanmar and wattage transmitted to the grid. It is not necessary for computers, steel or petrochemicals be made in India. What matters is making the economy cost competitive. Look at the flip side. It is not just an issue of managing shortages or food price inflation. As energy intensive production is outsourced from other geographies, India gets room for both growth and compliance in emission cuts. At WTO or at Climate Change Summits, India can afford to push for aggressive cuts.

Time is of the essence. This is not an occasion for the leadership to create committees and hide in the cocoon of postponement. For too long, public policy has yo-yoed between self-pity and pseudo self-reliance. India must act now. Ok is not ok.

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